Eusebius of Caesarea Praeparatio Evangelica

55. d 14 Heracl. Rell, cxxiv the cosmos or the divine powers to be dragged down
56. d 16 ibid, cxxv by magical incantations and so to give oracular
57. 71 a 1 Clem. Alex. Exhortation, c. iii. p. 39 P. predictions to the inquirers
58. 72 a 5 Homer, Od. xx. 351
XVII. That all such effects are due to daemonic
59. a 7 Clem. Al. Exhortation, c. iv. p. 43 P.
action
60. b 13 ibid. c. ii. p. 29 P.
61. Plato, Timaeus, p. 40 PREFACE
62. 76 c 2 Plato, Republic, ii. 377 E
63. 78 a 1 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman SUCH were the opinions entertained by the best
Archaeology, ii. 18 philosophers and by the ancient and most eminent
men of the Roman Empire in regard to the theology
of the Greeks----opinions which give no admission to
physical theories in the legends concerning the gods,
BOOK III nor to their gorgeous and sophistical impostures.
Since, however, we have once entered upon their
CONTENTS refutation, let us go on and consider their
Preface interpretations and theories, to see what, after all,
they bring with them that is venerable and worthy of
I. The physical theology of the Greeks the gods; and let us say nothing of ourselves, but on
II. The same subject all points make use of their own words, so that we
may again learn their venerable secrets from
III. The allegorical theology of the Egyptians
themselves.
IV. Further consideration of the physical system of
the Egyptians, and that they transferred the whole Now much labour has been spent upon these subjects
reference of their allegorical theory solely to the by numberless other professors of philosophy, who
visible celestial bodies, and to water and fire and the have made different subtle explanations of the same,
other elements of the cosmos and strongly insist that the opinion which occurred to
each was the exact truth. But for my part I am content
V. That this system also was wholly condemnable to bring forward my proofs from the most illustrious
VI. That we had good reason for withdrawing from authors who are well known to all philosophers, and
their more physical theory of the gods, and preferring have carried off no small reputation for philosophy
the only true theology among the Greeks.
VII. The systems of causation which the more recent Of whom take first and read the words of Plutarch of
philosophers interwove with the legends concerning Chaeroneia on the questions before us, wherein with
the gods solemn phrase he perverts the fables into what he
VIII. The erection of carved images in old times asserts to be mysterious theologies. And in unveiling
these he says that Dionysus is drunkenness, and no
IX. Further consideration of the allegorical theology longer the mortal man who has been exhibited by the
of the Greeks and Egyptians history in the preceding book; and that Hera means
X. Confutation and overthrow of their forced the joint wedded life of husband and wife. Then, as if
explanation he had forgotten his rendering, he forthwith tacks on
XI. Strong confutation of the Greek doctrines on this a different story, and no longer uses the name Hera as
point before, but calls the earth by her name, and gives the
name Leto to oblivion and night. And again he says
XII. Of the image at Elephantine that Hera is the same as Leto. Then in addition to this
XIII. Of the ox that is sacrificed to the sun in he introduces Zeus as representing allegorically the
Heliopolis power of the air.
XIV. That their gods, by ratifying the legendary But why need I thus anticipate, when we may hear
narratives concerning gods by their own oracles, are the man himself, in the essay which he wrote On the
convicted of contradicting the philosophers Daedala at Plataea, expounding as follows what was
XV. That they also by their oracles confirm the hidden from the multitude in the secret physiological
theories of the philosophers by allegories opposed to doctrines concerning the gods.1
the legends about themselves CHAPTER I
XVI. That it is a natural impossibility for the parts of

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Eusebius of Caesarea Praeparatio Evangelica

[PLUTARCH] 'THE physiology of the ancients both Citliaeron and of Plataea had been revealed, she was
among Greeks and Barbarians was a physical called Hera Τελεία and Γαµίλιος, goddess of the
doctrine concealed in legends, for the most part a perfect life, and of marriage.
secret and mysterious theology conveyed in enigmas
'Those who understand the fable in a more physical
and allegories, containing statements that were
and becoming sense connect Hera with Leto in the
clearer to the multitude than the silent omissions, and
following way. Hera, as has been said, is the Earth,
its silent omissions more liable to suspicion than the
and Leto is night, being a sort of oblivion on the part
open statements. This is evident in the Orphic poems,
of those who turn to sleep. And night is nothing else
and in the Egyptian and Phrygian stories: 'out the
but the shadow of the Earth. For when the Sun has
mind of the ancients is most clearly exhibited in the
reached the West and been hidden by the shadow, this
orgiastic rites connected with the initiations, and in
spreads itself out and darkens the air: and this is the
what is symbolically acted in the religious services.
cause of the failure of the full moon in an eclipse,
'For instance, not to digress far from our present when the shadow of the earth touches the moon in her
subjects, they do not suppose nor admit any orbit and obscures her light. Moreover, that Leto is
intercourse between Hera and Dionysus; and they none other than Hera, you may learn from what
guard against combining their worship; and their follows. Artemis we of course call the daughter of
priestesses at Athens, they say, do not speak to each Latona, but we also name the same goddess
other when they meet, nor is ivy ever brought into the Eileithyia: Hera therefore and Leto are two names of
precincts of Hera, not because of their fabulous and one goddess.
nonsensical jealousies, but because the goddess
'Again of Leto is born Apollo, and of Hera Ares, and
presides over marriage and bridal processions, and
they both have the same power: and Ares is so called
drunkenness is unbecoming to bridegrooms, and most
as helping (ίρίγων) in the mischances of violence
unbefitting to a marriage feast, as Plato says:2 for the
and battle, and Apollo as delivering and releasing
drinking of strong wine causes disorder both in body
(ίπαλλίττων καί ίπολίων) a man from his
and soul, whereby what is sown and conceived being
bodily diseases. For which reason also of the most
shapeless and misplaced does not take root well.
fiery and blazing luminaries one, the sun, is named
Again, those who sacrifice to Hera do not consecrate
Apollo, and the other of a fiery red is surnamed Ares.
the gall, but bury it beside the altar, meaning that the
And it is not unsuitable that the same goddess (Hera)
wedded life of wife and husband ought to be free
is called the goddess of marriage, and considered to
from anger and wrath, and undisturbed by rage and
be the mother of Eileithyia and of the sun. For the end
bitterness.
of marriage is birth; and birth is the passing out of
'This symbolical style is more common in the tales darkness into the sun and light. And it is a fine saying
and legends. As for instance, they relate that Hera, of the poet:
being brought up in Euboea. was stolen away while
'But soon her child, by Eileithyia's aid,
yet a virgin by Zeus, and was carried across and
Was brought to light, and saw the sun's bright rays.' 3
hidden in this region, where Cithaeron afforded them
a shady recess, nature's own bridal-chamber. And Rightly did the poet crowd the composition by the
when Macris----she was Hera's nurse----came to seek preposition, thereby indicating the hardness of the
her, and wished to make a search, Cithaeron would labour, and made the end of the birth consist in seeing
not let her pry about, or approach the spot, on the sun. The same goddess therefore made also the
pretence that Zeus was there resting and passing the marriage union, in order that she might prepare the
time in company with Leto. And as Macris went way for birth.
away, Hera thus escaped discovery on that occasion, 'But perhaps we ought also to mention the more silly
and afterwards calling to mind her debt of gratitude to legend. For it is said that when Hera was at variance
Leto she adopted her as partner in a common altar with Zeus, and was no longer willing to consort with
and common temple, so that sacrifices are first him, but hid herself, he was wandering about in
offered to Leto Μυχία, that is, 'of the inner shrine'; perplexity and fell in with Alalcomenes the earth-
but some call her Νυχία, 'goddess of night.' In each born, and was taught by him that, to deceive Hera, he
of the names, however, there is the signification of must pretend to wed another wife. So Alalcomenes
secrecy and escape. Some say that Hera had secret helped him, and they secretly cut down a tall and
intercourse there with Zeus, and, being undiscovered, beautiful oak, and shaped it and dressed it in bridal
was thus herself denominated Leto of the night: but array, and called it Daedale: then the hymeneal was
when her marriage became openly known, and their duly chanted, and the nymphs of Triton brought
intercourse first here in the neighbourhood of

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Eusebius of Caesarea Praeparatio Evangelica

lustral water, and Boeotia supplied flutes and festal more respectable, led not up to any heavenly,
processions. But when these performances went on, intellectual, and divine powers, nor yet to rational and
Hera could bear it no longer, but came down from incorporeal essences, but the explanation itself led
Cithaeron, followed by the women of Plataea, and down again to drunkenness, and marriage feasts, and
from anger and jealousy came running up to Zeus, human passions, and reduced the parts of the cosmos
and when the counterfeit became manifest, she was to fire, and earth, and sun, and the other elements of
reconciled to him and with joy and laughter herself matter, without introducing any other deity.
led the bridal procession, and gave additional honour
And Plato too knew this. In the Cratylus, at least, he
to the statue, and called the festival Daedala, and
expressly acknowledges that the first inhabitants of
nevertheless from jealousy burnt the thing, lifeless
Greece knew nothing more than the visible parts of
though it was.
the cosmos, and supposed the luminaries in the
'Such then is the legend: and the explanation of it is heaven and the other phenomena to be the only gods.
as follows. The variance and quarrel of Hera and
So he speaks as follows word for word:
Zeus is nothing else than the distemper and confusion
of the elements, when they no longer bear a due 'It appears to me that the first inhabitants of Greece
proportion to each other in the cosmos, but acknowledged no other gods than those whom many
disproportion and roughness arise, and they have a of the barbarians acknowledge now, namely, sun, and
desperate fight and dissolve their connexion, and moon, and earth, and stars, and heaven.' 5
work the ruin of the universe. But such being the doctrines of the Greeks, let us
If then Zeus, that is, the force of heat and fire, gives look also at those which are far more ancient than
occasion to the variance, a drought overtakes the these, I mean the Egyptian. They say that Isis and
earth: but if it is on the part of Hera, that is, the Osiris are the sun and the moon, and that they called
element of rain and wind, that any outbreak or excess the breath that pervades all things Zeus, and fire
takes place, there comes a great flood, and deluges Hephaestus, and the earth Demeter; also the water
and overflows everything. And as something of this was called among the Egyptians Oceanus, and their
kind occurred about those times, and Boeotia own river Nilus, and to him they ascribed the
especially had been deeply flooded, as soon as ever generations of the gods: the air, it is said, they call
the plain emerged and the flood abated, the order Athena.
which followed from the tranquillity of the And these five gods, I mean Air, and Water, and Fire,
atmosphere was called the agreement and and Earth, and Breath, travel over the whole world,
reconciliation of the deities. The first of the plants transforming themselves at various times into various
that sprang up out of the earth was the oak; and men shapes and semblances of men and animals of all
welcomed this, because it gave a permanent supply of kinds; and there have been among the Egyptians
food and safety. For not only for the pious, as Hesiod themselves mortal men called by the same names
says, but for all who survive the destruction, with these, Helios, and Kronos, and Rhea, and Zeus
'The top bears acorns, and the middle bees.' 4 too and Hera, and Hephaestus and Hestia. On these
subjects also Manetho writes at large, and Diodorus
CHAPTER II
concisely in his book before mentioned, giving the
THIS is what Plutarch says; and we learn from the narrative just as follows word for word: 6
statements which he sets before us, that even the
CHAPTER III
wonderful and secret physiology of the Greek
theology conveyed nothing divine, nor anything great [DIODORUS] 'THESE Gods,' he says (the Sun and
and worthy of deity, and deserving of attention. the Moon, which are according to the Egyptians
Osiris and Isis), 'govern the whole cosmos, supplying
For you have heard Hera called at one time Gamelios,
nourishment and growth to all things in three distinct
and a symbol of the joint life of husband and wife,
seasons, which by an invisible motion complete their
and at another time the earth called Hera, and at
circuit, spring, summer, and winter; and these being
another the element of water; and Dionysus translated
each of a very opposite nature to the others complete
into drunkenness, and Latona into night, and the sun
the year in excellent harmony. These deities, they
into Apollo, and Zeus himself into the force of heat
say, contribute most to the quickening of all things
and fire.
with life, Osiris making the chief contribution of fire
So then the original indecency of the legends, and the and wind, and Isis of water and earth, and both alike
physiological explanation, which is thought to be of air; and by these all things are generated and

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Eusebius of Caesarea Praeparatio Evangelica

nourished. And for this reason, they say, the whole supposed because she had light-blue eyes, for this is
body of universal nature is made up completely out of silly, but because the air has a bluish appearance.
the sun and moon, and as to the live parts of these
'They say that the five gods before mentioned travel
before mentioned, breath, fire, earth, water, and
over the whole world, and appear to men in the forms
finally air----just as in a man we count up head, and
of sacred animals, sometimes also transforming
hands, and feet, and the other members----in the same
themselves into the likenesses of men or other things:
manner the body of the cosmos is all composed of the
and that this is not fabulous, but possible, since these
parts before mentioned.
are in truth the progenitors of all things. The poet too,
'Each of these, they say, was regarded as a god, and a they say, having landed in Egypt, and had tales of this
special name given to each according to his proper kind imparted to him by the priests, in a certain
character, by those of the inhabitants of Egypt who passage of his poem stated the above-mentioned
first made use of articulate speech. So they called the circumstance as actually occurring:
wind Zeus, the word being so interpreted, and as he
'They, curious oft of mortal actions, deign
was the author of the soul in living beings they
In forms like these to round the earth and main,
supposed him to be, as it were, a father of all.7
Just and unjust recording in their mind,
'And with this, they say, the most illustrious poet of And with sure eyes inspecting all mankind.' 11
the Greeks agrees, when he speaks of this god, as
'Thus much then the Egyptians say concerning the
'Father of men and gods.' 8 gods who are in heaven, and have had an eternal
generation.
'Fire by interpretation they called Hephaestus,
considering him to be a great god, and to contribute 'But others, they say, were born of these on earth,
much to the production and perfect growth of all who having been originally mortal have obtained
things. The earth they supposed to be a sort of vessel immortality on account of their wisdom and general
containing all natural productions, and called it beneficence to mankind, and some of them have been
Mother: and the Greeks in like manner call it kings in Egypt. Of these some have the same names,
Demeter, the word having been a little changed when interpreted, as the gods of heaven, but others
through lapse of time. have received a name of their own; as Helios, and
Kronos, and Rhea, and Zeus also, whom some call
'For of old she was called Γί µίτηρ (Earth Mother),
Ammon; and in addition to these Hera, Hephaestus,
as Orpheus bears witness, saying----
and Hestia, and Hermes last: and Helios was the first
'Earth Mother of all, Demeter, giver of wealth.' 9 king of the Egyptians, having the same name as the
'The water, it is said, was called by the ancients luminary in the heaven.' 12
Oceané, which being interpreted is 'Mother of food,' Such, then are the statements of the historian whom I
but among some of the Greeks it was supposed to be have mentioned.
the Ocean, concerning which the poet says,
Moreover Plutarch, in his book On the story of Isis,
'Oceanus sire, and Tethys mother of gods.' 10 writes as follows, word for word: 13
'For the Egyptians consider their river Nile to be the [PLUTARCH] 'Let us begin again, and consider first
Ocean, and that the gods had their origin near it, the simplest of those who are thought to speak in the
because in Egypt alone of the whole world there are more philosophical way. Now, just as the Greeks
many cities founded by the elder gods, such as those make Kronos an allegorical name for time (Chronos),
of Zeus, Helios, Hermes, Apollo, Pan, Eileithyia, and and Hera for the air, and the birth of Hephaestus for
many others. the transformation of air into fire, so these say that in
'The air, it is said, they called Athena, the word being like manner among the Egyptians Osiris is the Nile,
so interpreted, and they regarded her as the daughter wedded to Isis the earth, and Typhon is the sea, into
of Zeus, and supposed her to be a virgin, because the which the Nile falls and disappears.'
air is naturally incorruptible, and occupies the highest After these and similar statements, he refers the
place of the whole cosmos: on which account the legends concerning the said deities back again to
fable went that she sprang from the head of Zeus. She daemons, and then again gives first one allegorical
was called also Tritogeneia from changing her nature rendering and afterwards another.
thrice in the year, in spring, summer, and winter. She
Now we might reasonably ask, to which set of gods,
is also called Glaucopis, not as some of the Greeks
will they say, do the forms belong which are

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Eusebius of Caesarea Praeparatio Evangelica

engraven on their statues. Are they those of daemons? So that from all these proofs this wonderful and noble
Or those of fire, and air, and earth, and water? Or physiology is convicted of having no connexion with
likenesses of men and women, and shapes of brute truth, and containing nothing really divine, but
animals and wild beasts? possessing only a forced and counterfeit solemnity of
external utterance. Hear, however, what Porphyry
For it has been admitted even by themselves that
records concerning these same gods in his Epistle to
certain mortal men have had the same names with the
Anebo the Egyptian. 15
Sun and the universal elements, and that these men
have been called gods. Of which then would it be CHAPTER IV
reasonable to say that the sculptures on the lifeless
[PORPHYRY] 'FOR as to Chaeremon and the rest,
statues are forms and images? Of the universal
they do not believe in anything else prior to the
elements? Or, as their appearance plainly shows, of
visible worlds, since they account as a ruling power
mortals now lying among the dead?
the gods of the Egyptians, and no others except the
Why, even if they would not say so themselves, so-called planets, and those stars which fill up the
surely true reason shouts and cries aloud, all but in zodiac, and as many as rise near them: also the
actual speech, and testifies that they of whom we divisions into the "decani," and the horoscopes, and
speak have been mortal men. And Plutarch with the so-called "mighty Rulers," the names of which are
superabundant pains describes the particular character contained in the almanacks, and their powers to heal
of their bodily shapes, in his work On Isis and the diseases, and their risings and settings, and
Gods of Egypt. speaking as follows: 14 indications of future events.
'The Egyptians narrate that in body Hermes was 'For he saw that those who assert the Sun to be the
short-armed, and Typhon red in complexion, and Creator twist the story of Osiris and Isis, and all the
Horus fair, and Osiris dark-skinned, as having been priestly legends, either into allusions to the stars and
by nature men.' their appearances and disappearances and their solar
distances at rising, or to the waxings and wanings of
Thus speaks Plutarch. So then their whole
the moon, or to the course of the sun, or to the
manufacture of gods consists of dead men; and their
hemisphere of night, or of day, or to their river; and
physical explanations are fictitious. For what need
generally that they interpreted all things of physical
was there to model figures of men and women, when
phenomena, and nothing of incorporeal and living
without them they could worship the sun and moon
beings. And most of them made even our own free
and the other elements of the cosmos?
will depend upon the motion of the stars, binding all
To which of these two classes did they assign names things down by indissoluble bonds, I know not how,
of this kind, and with whom did they begin? I mean, to a necessity which they call fate, and making all
for example, Hephaestus and Athena, and Zeus, and things depend closely on these gods, whom, as the
Poseidon, and Hera. sole deliverers from the bonds of fate, they worship
Were these in the first place names of the universal with temples, and statues, and the like.'
elements, which they have since ascribed to mortals, Let then this quotation from the before-mentioned
making them of the same name as the heavenly Epistle suffice, clearly declaring, as it does, that even
bodies? Or on the contrary, have they transferred the the secret theology of the Egyptians made no other
names in use among men to the natural substances? gods than the stars in the heaven, both those which
But why should they address the natural elements of are called fixed, and the so-called planets, and
the universe by names of mortal men? And the introduced no incorporeal mind as creator of the
mysteries belonging to each god, and the hymns, and universe, nor any creative reason, nor yet a god or
songs, and the secrets of the initiatory rites,----do gods, nor any intelligent and invisible powers, but
these introduce the symbols of the universal elements, only the visible Sun. "Wherefore also they referred
or of the mortal men of old who had the same names the cause of the universe to the heavenly bodies
with the gods? alone, making all depend on fate, and the movement
and course of the stars, as in fact this opinion has
Then as to wanderings, and drunken fits, and amours, prevailed among them until now.
and seduction of women, and plots against men, and
countless things, which are in truth shameful and If therefore all is interpreted by the Egyptians of the
unseemly practices of mortal men, how could any one visible elements of the world alone, and nothing of
refer these to the universal elements, acts which bear incorporeal and living beings, and if the elements and
upon their very face mortality and human passion? all visible bodies are by their own account inanimate

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Eusebius of Caesarea Praeparatio Evangelica

and irrational, and in their nature fleeting and 'They reverence, therefore, these elements that bear a
perishable,----see into what difficulties their theology part in the sacrifices, and above these they reverence
has fallen again, in deifying inanimate substance and most highly the things which are more fully
dead and irrational bodies, especially since they associated with the sacrifices: and such are all living
referred nothing to incorporeal and intelligent beings, beings, for in the village Anabis they even worship a
nor to a mind and reason creating the universe. man, and sacrifice is there offered to him, and the
victims are consumed by fire upon the altars: and yet
But since it was acknowledged in the passages before
presently he would eat the proper things prepared for
quoted that their theological doctrines had been
him as a man. As, therefore, we ought to abstain from
brought over to the Greeks from the Egyptians, it is
eating man's flesh, so we should abstain from the
time that the Greeks also should take their place with
flesh of other animals.
them, and give the same physiological explanations
as the Egyptians, and be convicted of deifying 'But further out of their abundant wisdom and their
nothing more than inanimate matter. For such were familiarity with the divine, they perceived that certain
the august deities of the Egyptians according to the animals were more dear than men to certain of their
description of the writer before mentioned, who gods, a hawk, for instance, to the Sun, as having its
again, in the work which he entitled On Abstinence whole nature made up of blood and breath, and feding
from Animal Food, gives such details as the following pity even for man, and shrieking over an exposed
concerning the same people: 16 corpse, and scraping up earth over it.'
'Starting from this discipline and intimacy with the A little further on he says:
deity, they judged that the divine pervaded not man
'An ignorant person might detest a beetle, being
only, nor did soul tabernacle upon earth in man alone,
without judgement in things divine: but the Egyptians
but all animals were pervaded by almost the same
reverenced it, as a living image of the sun. For every
kind of soul. Wherefore they admitted every animal
beetle is male, and deposits his spawn in a marsh, and
into their manufacture of gods, and mixed up beasts
having made it into a ball carries it back with his hind
and men just alike, and also the bodies of birds and
feet, as the sun does the heaven, and waits a lunar
men.
period of days.
'For with them there is a figure represented like a man
'In like manner they make some philosophic
up to the neck, but having the face of a bird or a lion
explanation concerning the ram, and another
or some other animal: and, on the other hand again,
concerning the crocodile, and the vulture and the ibis,
the head of a man and members of some other
and generally as to each of the animals; so that out of
animals, set partly below, and partly above. And
their wisdom and their superior knowledge of things
hereby they indicate that according to the mind of the
divine, they attained even to the worship of animals.'
gods these animals also are associated one with
another, and that it is not without a divine purpose CHAPTER V
that the wild beasts are bred up with us and tamed. SUCH are the statements set forth concerning the
'Hence also the lion is worshipped as a god, and a noble physiology of the wise Egyptians by the above-
division of Egypt which they call a Nome has from mentioned author, who has made their secrets clear to
the lion the name Leonto-polites, and another, from us, namely that they worship water and fire, and that
the cow, Busirites, and another, from the dog, the essential nature of rational and irrational animals,
Cynopolites. For the power which is over all they not in body only but also in soul, is judged among
worshipped through the associated animals which them to be one and the same, so that he thinks they
each of the gods had given them. have called the beasts gods with good reason.
'Water and fire, the most beautiful of the elements, Yet must it not be most unreasonable to admit the
they reverence as being chief causes of our irrational and bestial nature to deification, on the
preservation, and exhibit them also in their temples; ground, as they say, of participation in the same kind
as, I believe, even now at the opening of the of soul with men? For they ought, if so, to have
sanctuary of Serapis the worship is performed by regarded them also as men, and given them a share of
means of fire and water, the precentor pouring out the human glory and honour.
water and exhibiting the fire, whenever he stands This, however, they did not; but the beasts which
upon the threshold and wakes the god in the native were created by nature itself irrational, and have
language of the Egyptians. received this appellation, and not even been thought
worthy of the title of men, they chose to accept, on no

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Eusebius of Caesarea Praeparatio Evangelica

mere equality with men; but taking the highest title of the cosmos, to which we may add the liquid and the
God the universal King and Creator of all things, they solid elements and the composition of bodies.
have degraded it to the nature of beasts, and bestowed
Must not then the gospel of Jesus our Saviour, the
the title of gods upon things which have not been
Christ of God, be great and admirable, as teaching all
deemed worthy by God Himself even of the title of
mankind to worship with befitting thoughts the God
man.
and Lord of sun and moon, and Maker of the whole
In addition to this, you have heard the mystic cosmos, who is Himself high above and beyond the
theosophy, which led the wonderful sages of Egypt to universe, and to celebrate in hymns not the elements
worship wolves and dogs and lions: you have learnt of bodies, but Him who is the sustainer of life itself,
also the miracle of the beetle, and the virtue of the and dispenser of all good things? For that gospel
hawk. Laugh not then in future at their gods, but pity teaches us not to stand in awe of the visible parts of
the thrice wretched human race for their great folly the cosmos and all that can be apprehended by fleshly
and blindness. sense, as they must be of perishable nature; but to
marvel only at the mind which in all these exists
Moreover, consider all things carefully, and see what
unseen, and which creates both the whole and each
blessings God's Christ came to bestow on us, since
several part; and to regard as God one sole Divine
through His teaching in the Gospel he has redeemed
Power pervading and ordering all things, being in its
even the souls of Egyptians from such a disease of
nature incorporeal and intelligent, or rather
lasting and long continued blindness, so that now
impossible to describe and to conceive, which shows
most of the people of Egypt have been freed from this
itself through all things whereby it works, and
insanity.
incorporeally pervades and traverses them all without
CHAPTER VI intermixture, and throughout all things, not only in
SUCH then were the notions received among the heaven but also upon earth, both the universal
Egyptians, which are recorded as more ancient than elements and the several parts, exhibits the perpetual
all the doctrines of the Greeks. Therefore, you have in mighty working of the Godhead, and presides over all
addition to the mythical theology that of a more in a manner which our sight and sense cannot
physical character common to Greeks and Egyptians, perceive, and governs the whole cosmos by laws of
who devised of old the superstition of polytheism; ineffable wisdom.
and you have learnt that among them nothing at all After we have given so many proofs in confutation of
was known of the truly divine, incorporeal, and their inconsistent theology, both the more mythical
intelligent natures. so-called, and that which is forsooth of a higher and
However, let it be granted and allowed to these more physical kind which the ancient Greeks and
stargazers that they speak truth and are right in their Egyptians were shown to magnify, it is time to survey
physical explanation of the allegories; and let their also the refinements of the younger generations who
sun become now Apollo, and now again Horus, and make a profession of philosophy in our own time: for
the same sun again Osiris, and numberless other these have endeavoured to combine the doctrines
things, as many as they would wish; and the moon in concerning a creative mind of the universe, and those
like manner either Isis or Artemis, or as many names concerning incorporeal ideas and intelligent and
as any one would choose to enumerate. rational powers,----doctrines invented long ages
afterwards by Plato, and thought out with accurate
For grant that these are not names indicative of reasonings,----with the theology of the ancients,
mortal men, but of the real celestial luminaries: we exaggerating with yet greater conceit their promise
should then have to worship the sun and the moon concerning the legends. Listen then to their
and the stars and the other parts of the cosmos as physiology also, and observe with what boastfulness
gods. it has been published by Porphyry. 17
In this way, therefore, the noble philosophy of the CHAPTER VII
Greeks appears as it were 'ex machina,' on the one
hand highly exalting the promise of the word, but on [PORPHYRY]
the other lowering the thought of the wise down to '"I speak to those who lawfully may hear:
the sensible and visible workmanship of God, and Depart all ye profane, and close the doors."
deifying, through the celestial luminaries, nothing
'THE thoughts of a wise theology, wherein men
else than fire, and the nature of heat, and the parts of
indicated God and God's powers by images akin to
sense, and sketched invisible things in visible forms, I

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will show to those who have learned to read from the [PLUTARCH] 'THE making of wooden statues
statues as from books the things there written seems to be a primitive and ancient custom, inasmuch
concerning the gods. Nor is it any wonder that the as the first image sent to Delos by Erysichthon for
utterly unlearned regard the statues as wood and Apollo at the time of the religious embassies was of
stone, just as also those who do not understand the wood; also the image of Athena Polias was of wood,
written letters look upon the monuments as mere which was set up by the aborigines, and which the
stones, and on the tablets as bits of wood, and on Athenians carefully preserve to the present day. The
books as woven papyrus.' Samians also had a wooden figure of Hera, as
Callimachus says:
After such proud boasting by way of prelude, hear
how he goes on next to write, word for word: "No polish'd work of Smilis thou, but plank
Untouch'd by chisel, as by ancient rule
'As the deity is of the nature of light, and dwells in an
They made their gods: so Danaus of plain wood
atmosphere of ethereal fire, and is invisible to sense
Athena's seated form in Lindus set." 19
that is busy about mortal life, He through translucent
matter, as crystal or Parian marble or even ivory, led 'And it is said that Peiras, who first founded the
men on to the conception of his light, and through temple of Hera in Argolis, and appointed his own
material gold to the discernment of the fire, and to his daughter Callithyia priestess, cut down a tall pear-tree
undefiled purity, because gold cannot be defiled. from the wood about Tiryns, and formed a statue of
Hera. For stone being rough and hard to work, and
'On the other hand, black marble was used by many
lifeless, they were not willing to have it carved into a
to show his invisibility; and they moulded their gods
likeness of a deity: and gold and silver they thought
in human form because the deity is rational, and made
to be sickly colours and stains breaking out like
these beautiful, because in those is pure and perfect
bruises from a barren and corrupt soil which had been
beauty; and in varieties of shape and age, of sitting
stricken by fire: but sometimes in sport they made use
and standing, and drapery; and some of them male,
of ivory also, as a variation in luxury.'
and some female, virgins, and youths, or married, to
represent their diversity. So says Plutarch; and long before him Plato knew
well that there is nothing venerable nor suited to the
'Hence they assigned everything white to the gods of
divine nature in gold and ivory, and things
heaven, and the sphere and all things spherical to the
manufactured out of lifeless material: for hear what
cosmos and to the sun and moon in particular, but
sort of directions he gives in the Laws: 20
sometimes also to fortune and to hope: and the circle
and things circular to eternity, and to the motion of 'The land, therefore, and the household hearth are for
the heaven, and to the zones and cycles therein; and all men temples of all the gods; wherefore let no man
the segments of circles to the phases of the moon; consecrate temples a second time to the gods. In other
pyramids and obelisks to the element of fire, and cities gold and silver, whether in private houses or in
therefore to the gods of Olympus; so again the cone temples, are an invidious possession; and ivory taken
to the sun, and cylinder to the earth, and figures from a dead body is not a pure offering; iron also and
representing parts of the human body to sowing and bronze are implements of war.'
generation.'
Now I think these passages contain a clear refutation
These are the statements of this wonderful of the physical explanation which was put forward:
philosopher: and what could be more unseemly than but let us go on and examine the remainder of it. Hear
talking, as they do, in solemn phrase about shameful then how he talks: 21
things? Or what more violently unreasonable than to
CHAPTER IX
assert that lifeless materials, gold, and marble, and
such like, bear representations of the light of the [PORPHYRY] 'Now look at the wisdom of the
gods, and manifestations of their heavenly and Greeks, and examine it as follows. The authors of the
ethereal nature? That these are modern sophistries, Orphic hymns supposed Zeus to be the mind of the
and never entered, even in a drearn, into the world, and that he created all things therein,
imagination of the ancients, you may learn, on being containing the world in himself. Therefore in their
informed that statues made of gold, and other theological systems they have handed down their
material esteemed more precious, were even rejected opinions concerning him thus: 22
among the men of former times. Plutarch, at all "Zeus was the first, Zeus last, the lightning's lord,
events, speaks somewhere thus, word for word: 18 Zeus head, Zeus centre, all things are from Zeus.
CHAPTER VIII Zeus born a male, Zeus virgin undefiled;

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Zeus the firm base of earth and starry heaven; who traverse the air, as the eagle is master of the
Zeus sovereign, Zeus alone first cause of all: birds that fly aloft----or a victory, because he is
One power divine, great ruler of the world, himself victorious over all things.'
One kingly form, encircling all things here,
These things Porphyry tells you: and after they have
Fire, water, earth, and ether, night and day;
been delivered in the manner already stated, it will be
Wisdom, first parent, and delightful Love:
well to examine quietly and at leisure what after all
For in Zeus' mighty body these all lie.
the verses declare Zeus to be. I for my part think they
His head and beauteous face the radiant heaven
make him to be none else than the visible world
Reveals, and round him float in shining waves
consisting of many various parts, both of those in
The golden tresses of the twinkling stars.
heaven and in the ether, and of the stars which appear
On either side bulls' horns of gold are seen,
therein,----these being set first as in the head of a
Sunrise and sunset, footpaths of the gods.
great body,----and also of the parts that lie in the air,
His eyes the Sun, the Moon's responsive light;
and earth, and sea, and the like.
His mind immortal ether, sovereign truth,
Hears and considers all; nor any speech, Certainly the earth and mountains and hills are parts
Nor cry, nor noise, nor ominous voice escapes of the world, and the sea is rolled round in the midst
The ear of Zeus, great Kronos' mightier son: of them like a girdle, and fire also and water, and
Such his immortal head, and such his thought. night and day must be parts of the same nature of the
His radiant body, boundless, undisturbed world. These things I suppose to indicate directly the
In strength of mighty limbs was formed thus: visible world, unless I am somewhat mistaken, and to
The god's broad-spreading shoulders, breast, and show us the universe made up of various parts. He
back says at all events:
Air's wide expanse displays; on either side 'For in Zeus' mighty body these all lie.'
Grow wings, wherewith throughout all space he flies.
Earth the all-mother, with her lofty hills, And what 'these all' are, he clearly states:
His sacred belly forms; the swelling flood 'Fire, water, earth, and ether, night and day.
Of hoarse resounding Ocean girds his waist. His head and beauteous face the radiant heaven
His feet the deeply rooted ground upholds, Reveals, and round him float in shining waves
And dismal Tartarus, and earth's utmost bounds. The golden tresses of the twinkling stars.'
All things he hides, then from his heart again
In godlike action brings to gladsome light." In the verses that follow these, he adds the statement
that the mind of Zeus is the ether and nothing else, in
'Zeus, therefore, is the whole world, animal of agreement with the Stoics, who assert that the
animals, and god of gods; but Zeus, that is, inasmuch element of fire and heat is the ruling principle of the
as he is the mind from which he brings forth all world, and that god is a body, and the Creator himself
things, and by his thoughts creates them. When the nothing else than the force of fire. For in this same
theologians had explained the nature of god in this sense I think it is said in the verses:
manner, to make an image such as their description
indicated was neither possible, nor, if any one thought 'His mind immortal ether, sovereign truth,
of it, could he show the look of life, and intelligence, Hears and considers all.'
and forethought by the figure of a sphere. Wherein without any concealment he supposed the
'But they have made the representation of Zeus in world to be a great animal, and calling it Zeus, he
human form, because mind was that according to represented the ether as his mind, and the remaining
which he wrought, and by generative laws brought all parts of the world as his body.
things to completion; and he is seated, as indicating Such is found to be the Zeus depicted by the verses.
the steadfastness of his power: and his upper parts are
bare, because he is manifested in the intellectual and And the interpreter of the poem begins by saying, in
the heavenly parts of the world; but his feet are accordance with the same, 'Zeus, therefore, is the
clothed, because he is invisible in the things that lie whole world, animal of animals, god of gods;' thus
hidden below. And he holds his sceptre in his left clearly explaining that the Zeus of his theology is
hand, because most close to that side of the body shown by the poem to be no other than the visible and
dwells the heart, the most commanding and sensible world.
intelligent organ: for the creative mind is the Now the doctrine was that of the Egyptians, from
sovereign of the world. And in his right hand he holds whom Orpheus took his theology, and thought that
forth either an eagle, because he is master of the gods

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the world was the god composed of many gods who God is the same as the world, and besides these the
were parts of himself (for they were shown in what man who thinks that the creator of the universe is the
goes before to have also deified the parts of the mind of the world.
world); and the statements which have been quoted
For piety declares that He is the Maker and Preserver
from the verses declared nothing more than this.
of the world, being distinct from that which He has
But Porphyry after his first interpretation adds made: but to say that He is the mind of the world, just
another of his own, asserting that the God who is the like the soul of some animal, made altogether one
Maker of the world is this creative mind which has therewith, and clothed with the universe, must pass
been deified by the poet. the bounds of reverence.
But how could the poet, whether he were the Yet certainly our sacred oracles teach us that He is
Thracian Orpheus or any one else, deify just this present with the whole, and governs the world by His
mind, of which he never knew any thing at all, if providence, and they speak of God in a worthy and
indeed his theological doctrines came to him from the becoming manner when they say: 'Do not I fill
Egyptians or from the primitive Greeks? For these heaven and earth? saith the Lord.'24 And again: 'He is
were proved to have understood nothing ideal or God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath.'25
comprised in invisible and incorporeal essence, if And again: 'For in Him we live, and move, and have
Plato's assurance may suffice us, when in the our being;'26 not, however, as in a part of the world,
Cratylus he admits 'that the first race of men in nor as in its soul and mind.
Greece believed only in these same gods which many
But if there is occasion to use a simile, the sacred
of the barbarians believe in now, sun, and moon, and
word somewhere exclaims in a manner more worthy
earth, and stars, and heaven.' 23
of God and akin to truth: 'The heaven is My throne,
We had also just now Chaeremon as a witness that and the earth is the footstool of My feet.'
the Egyptians believed in nothing previous to the
For if it was necessary to personify God at all in
visible world, 'nor in any other gods except the
human language, mark the difference in the theology.
planets' and other stars, and interpreted all things in
For He who called the heaven His throne set apart
reference to the visible parts of the world, 'and
God the universal Monarch above the throne and far
nothing to incorporeal and living beings.'
higher than the universe, and yet did not sever the
CHAPTER X earth from His providence; for He teaches that the
providential powers of His Godhead condescend even
THESE then being the principles from which the poet
to things here below, and therefore He says: 'The
started, whence, or how, or from whom did he receive
earth is the footstool of My feet.'
the conception in his verses of the God who is above
and beyond the world, and is the Maker of sun, and But neither the footstool, nor yet the throne, is the
moon and stars, and of the heaven itself and the body of Him that is seated there, nor could ever be
whole world? called parts of Him. And he who said that the heaven
and the things therein are the head of god, and the
And whence did he get his knowledge of things
ether his mind, and the other parts of the world his
incorporeal?
limbs and body, is convicted of knowing neither
Nay, of these things he knows nothing; for neither creator nor god.
does the creative mind of the universe consist of
For he could not create himself, nor, since the ether
many parts, nor can, the heaven be its head, nor fire
was his mind, could he still himself be called mind.
and water and earth its body, nor yet sun and moon its
What sort of god too would he be. whose members
eyes. And how can 'the wide expanse of air, and
were the earth and the mountains on the earth, mere
earth, and lofty hills' be the shoulders, and breast, and
senseless heaps of corporeal atoms? How too can it
back, and belly, of the Divine Creator of the
be reasonable to proclaim as god the kinsman and
universe? Or how can the ether ever be thought of as
brother of fire, and air, and water, products of
the mind of the Maker of the universe, or of the
senseless and perishing matter?
creative mind?
If, again, the mind of Zeus was nothing else except
There is no need, then, to argue further that these are
the aforesaid ether, and if ether is the highest and
sophistic devices of the interpreter of the poem. For
most fiery kind of air, and has received this name, as
my part, indeed, I say that the man who asserts that
they say, from ίθεσθαι, which means 'to be on fire,'
the parts of the world are parts of God is guilty of the
and if both the air and the ether are material
utmost impiety, and still more he who declared that

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substances, see to what your mind of Zeus has come rightly spoken of as preserving an image and likeness
down. of God, inasmuch as it is immaterial and incorporeal,
and intelligent and rational in its essence, and is
And who in his right senses would still address as
capable of virtue and wisdom.31
god him who had a mind devoid of mind and of
reason, since such is the nature of every material If then any one were able to fabricate an image and
body? Wherefore we in our thoughts of God must form of the soul in a statue, such a man might also
receive the entire contrary to the doctrines which make some representation of the higher natures; but if
have been mentioned; that He is not the heaven, nor the mind of man is without form and cannot be seen
ether, nor sun, nor moon, nor the whole choir of the or figured, neither discernible by sight, nor in its
stars, nor the whole world itself together: but these essence comprehensible by speech and hearing, who
are works of His hands, still small and petty in would be so mad as to declare that the statue made in
comparison with His incorporeal and intelligent the likeness of man bears the form and image of the
powers: because all body is perishable and irrational, Most High, God?
and such is the nature of things visible. But the things
Rather is God's nature imagined apart from all
beyond in the invisible world being rational and
perishable matter, being contemplated by purified
immortal, and co-eternal with the blessed life of God
souls in lucid thought and in silence: whereas, in the
the King of all, must be far better than all the things
representation of the visible Zeus, the figure must be
that are seen.
an image of a man of mortal nature, yet not an
Rightly therefore do the sacred oracles teach us imitation of the whole man, but of one and that the
concerning the visible parts of the world as follows: 'I worse part of him, because it conveys not a trace of
will behold the heavens, the works of Thy fingers, the life and soul.
moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained.'27 And
How then can the God who is over all, and the mind
again: 'Thou Lord, in the beginning didst lay the
which is the creator of the universe, be that same
foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the
Zeus who is seen in the bronze or in the dead ivory?
works of Thy hands.'28 And again: 'Lift up your eyes
And how could the mind that was the creator of the
on high, and see who hath created all these.'29
universe be forsooth that very Zeus, the father of
Let this, then, suffice for answer to the first Hercules by Alcmena, and of the other men fabled to
interpretation of the poem; and let us go on to be sons of Zeus, who, having ended their mortal life
examine what follows. Since it was not possible, he in the way common to all men, have left indelible
says, 'to make such an image as their description monuments of their proper nature to those who came
indicated, therefore they have made the after them?
representation of Zeus in human form, because it was
Accordingly, the first theologians among the
according to mind that he wrought, and by generative
Phoenicians, as we showed in the first Book, related
laws brought all things to completion.'30
that Zeus the son of Kronos, mortal son of mortal
But how, if it was not possible to make an image such father, was a Phoenician by race: while the Egyptians,
as the description indicated, and if, as we have seen, claiming the man as their own, confessed again that
it indicated the parts of the sensible and visible world, he was mortal, and agreed in this point at least with
heaven and the things in heaven, the air also, and the Phoenicians.
earth, and all that is therein----if then, I say, it was not
But further the Cretans, showing the grave of Zeus in
possible to compose an image of the visible parts of
their midst, would be third witnesses of the same fact.
the world, how, inasmuch as god was mind, could
The Atlantians also, and all who have been
any one make an image of him?
previously mentioned as claiming Zeus for their own
And what likeness can a human body have to the according to their native history, all alike declared
mind of God? For my part I think there is nothing in him mortal, and recorded his deeds as those of a
it answering even to the mind of man, since the one is mortal man, but not deeds of a respectable or
incorporeal, uncompounded, and without parts, while philosophic kind, being full of all indecency and
the other, being the work of common mechanics, is wantonness.
the imitation of the nature of a mortal body, and
To those who have professed to give a more
represents a deaf and dumb image of living flesh in
respectable turn to the legends Zeus was at one time a
lifeless and dead matter.
hot and fiery force, and at another the wind: but now,
Rather does the rational and immortal soul and the somehow or other they have made him appear as the
impassible mind in man's nature seem to me to be creative mind of the universe.

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We must inquire, therefore, whom would they name [PORPHYRY] 'And the power of the whole air is
as his father, and his father's father? For according to Hera, called by a name derived from the air: but the
all the theologians Zeus is acknowledged to be the symbol of the sublunar air which is affected by light
son of Kronos, and the verses of Orpheus before and darkness is Leto; for she is oblivion caused by the
quoted made mention of 'the mighty son of Kronos': insensibility in sleep, and because souls begotten
and Kronos was son of Uranus. Let us, therefore, below the moon are accompanied by forgetfulness of
grant to them that Zeus is the god over all, and the the Divine; and on this account she is also the mother
mind which created all. Who then was his father? of Apollo and Artemis, who are the sources of light
Kronos. And who his grandfather? Uranus. for the night.'
But if Zeus as creator of all was before all, then those Now here he says that the sublunar air is the mother
who were made by him ought to be counted as second of sun and moon, because the air is Leto. But how
and after him. For if either Kronos be time, as being could the air become the mother of the sources of
by nature the offspring of heaven, that is of Uranus, illumination, being itself acted on rather than acting?
or if time came into existence together with heaven, For sun and moon, produce different changes in the
or if Uranus himself was the father of Kronos, and air at different times.
time subsequent to this latter, at all events the god
But again, he next proceeds to say:
who was the cause of the universe and creator of
heaven and of time, was before them. And if so, Zeus 'The ruling principle of the power of earth is called
could not be the third from Uranus. Hestia, of whom a statue representing her as a virgin
is usually set up on the hearth; but inasmuch as the
How then, among all Egyptians, and Phoenicians, and
power is productive, they symbolize her by the form
Greeks, and philosophers, is the mind that created the
of a woman with prominent breasts. The name Rhea
universe reckoned third in descent from Uranus? So
they gave to the power of rocky and mountainous
the fiction of our philosopher is plainly detected, and
land, and Demeter to that of level and productive
will be still more fully detected from what he goes on
land. Demeter in other respects is the same as Rhea,
to say, as follows.32
but differs in the fact that she gives birth to Koré by
CHAPTER XI Zeus, that is, she produces the shoot (κίρος) from
the seeds of plants. And on this account her statue is
[PORPHYRY] 'THEY have made Hera the wife of
crowned with ears of corn, and poppies are set round
Zeus, because they called the ethereal and aerial
her as a symbol of productiveness.'
power Hera. For the ether is a very subtle air.'
Now here again mark in what manner he has
The poem quoted above declared that the ether is the
degraded Rhea, who is said to be the mother of the
mind of Zeus: but now our author's statement defines
gods and of Zeus himself, down to the level of rocks
what the ether is, by saying that it is a very subtle air:
and earth, and makes utter confusion by saying that
but the air is body, and the ether a much more
she is the same with Demeter, except that she differs
primitive kind of body.
'in the fact that Demeter (he says) gives birth to Koré
The mind, then, of Zeus is proved to be body, by Zeus, just as the level ground produces the shoot
although the very subtlest kind of body. But how can (κίρος) from the seeds of plants. 'Behold, here again
body and mind be conceived the same, since in their you have Zeus transformed into the seeds of plants!
natures they are diametrically opposed?
To this he next adds a further statement:
Then somehow he has forgotten the express statement
'But since there was in the seeds cast into the earth a
of the poems----
certain power, which the sun in passing round to the
'His mind immortal ether, sovereign truth, lower hemisphere drags down at the time of the
Hears and considers all; nor any speech, winter solstice, Koré is the seminal power, and Pluto
Nor cry, nor noise, nor ominous voice escapes the sun passing under the earth, and traversing the
The ear of Zeus, great Kronos' mightier son'---- 33 unseen world at the time of the winter solstice; and he
for hereby the ether is plainly declared to be the mind is said to carry off Koré, who, while hidden beneath
of Zeus. the earth, is lamented by her mother Demeter.

But Porphyry says, on the contrary, that Hera is the 'The power which produces hard-shelled fruits, and
ethereal and aerial power. Then he adds a distinction the fruits of plants in general, is named Dionysus. But
and says:34 observe the images of these also. For Koré bears
symbols of the production of the plants which grow

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above the earth in the crops: and Dionysus has horns Satyrs. These, then, are the symbols by which the
in common with Koré, and is of female form, power of the earth is revealed.'
indicating the union of male and female forces in the
So far, then, we have these statements (of Porphyry),
generation of the hard-shelled fruits.
which I have been compelled to set before you
'But Pluto, the ravisher of Koré, has a helmet as a briefly, in order that we may not be ignorant of the
symbol of the unseen pole, and his shortened sceptre fine doctrines of the philosophers. Thus, therefore,
as an emblem of his kingdom of the nether world; and according to the accounts rendered by them, Koré is
his dog (κίων) indicates the generation (κίησιν) of the power of the seed-crops, and Dionysus of the tree-
the fruits in its threefold division----the sowing of the fruits, and of the spring-flowers Attis is the symbol,
seed, its reception by the earth, its growing up. For he and Adonis of the ripe fruits.
is called a dog (κίων), not because souls are his food
Why then ought we to deify these things which have
(κίρας βορίν, Cerberus), but because of the earth's
been made by the God of the universe for sustenance
fertility (κυείν), for which Pluto provides when he
of the bodies of the animals upon the earth? Or why
carries off Koré.
is the worship of the power of the earth becoming to
'Attis, too, and Adonis are related to the analogy of us, who have received from God, the sovereign ruler
fruits. Attis is the symbol of the blossoms which of the world, a soul whose nature is heavenly,
appear early in the spring, and fall off before the rational, and immortal, capable of contemplation by
complete fertilization; whence they further attributed the purged eyes of thought?
castration to him, from the fruits not having attained
On hearing that Silenus is the motion of the wind, and
to seminal perfection: but Adonis was the symbol of
the force which penetrates through all things, and that
the cutting of the perfect fruits.
at one time he represents by his head the revolution of
'Silenus was the symbol of the wind's motion, which the heavens, and at another the density of the air by
contributes no few benefits to the world. And the the shaggy hair of his beard, how can one patiently
flowery and brilliant wreath upon his head is endure to see him thought worthy of no august
symbolic of the revolution of the heaven, and the hair worship, who ought to have been deified before all,
with which his lower limbs are surrounded is an while Adonis and Dionysus, the corn-crops forsooth
indication of the density of the air near the earth. and tree-fruits, are turned into gods?
'Since there was also a power partaking of the And who could patiently bear to hear Satyrs and
prophetic faculty, the power is called Themis, Bacchantes spoken of with reverence, which are the
because of its telling what is appointed (τεθειµίνα) foul and licentious passions of mankind, inasmuch as
and fixed for each person. the former, the Satyrs, represented the impulses
which excite to carnal pleasure, and the Bacchantes
'In all these ways, then, the power of the earth finds
the inducements which concur to frenzy in those who
an interpretation and is worshipped: as a virgin and
take part herein?
Hestia, she holds the centre; as a mother she
nourishes; as Rhea she makes rocks and dwells on But what need to refute each part separately, when we
mountains; as Demeter, she produces herbage; and as ought merely to run over them so that none of their
Themis, she utters oracles: while the seminal law secrets may escape us, and to cut short the physical
which descends into her bosom is figured as Priapus, explanation of what follows, which the author before
the influence of which on dry crops is called Koré, named has set forth, proceeding in the following
and on soft fruits and shell-fruits is called Dionysus. manner:35
For Koré was carried off by Pluto, that is, the sun
'The whole power productive of water they called
going down beneath the earth at seed-time; but
Oceanus, and named its symbolic figure Tethys. But
Dionysus begins to sprout according to the conditions
of the whole, the drinking-water produced is called
of the power which, while young, is hidden beneath
Achelous; and the sea-water Poseidon; while again
the earth, yet produces fine fruits, and is an ally of the
that which makes the sea, inasmuch as it is
power in the blossom symbolized by Attis, and of the
productive, is Amphitrite. Of the sweet waters the
cutting of the ripened corn symbolized by Adonis.
particular powers are called Nymphs, and those of the
'Also the power of the wind which pervades all things sea-waters Nereids.
is formed into a figure of Silenus, and the perversion
'Again, the power of fire they called Hephaestus, and
to frenzy into a figure of a Bacchante, as also the
have made his image in the form of a man, but put on
impulse which excites to lust is represented by the
it a blue cap as a symbol of the revolution of the

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heavens, because the archetypal and purest form of 'Cerberus is represented with three heads, because the
lire is there. But the fire brought down from heaven positions of the sun above the earth are three----
to earth is less intense, and wants the strengthening rising, midday, and setting.
and support which is found in matter: wherefore he is
'The moon, conceived according to her brightness,
lame, as needing matter to support him.
they called Artemis, as it were ίερίτεµις, "cutting
'Also they supposed a power of this kind to belong to the air." And Artemis, though herself a virgin,
the sun and called it Apollo, from the pulsation presides over childbirth, because the power of the
(πίλσις) of his beams. There are also nine Muses new moon is helpful to parturition.
singing to his lyre, which are the sublunar sphere, and
'What Apollo is to the sun, that Athena is to the
seven spheres of the planets, and one of the fixed
moon: for the moon is a symbol of wisdom, and so a
stars. And they crowned him with laurel, partly
kind of Athena.
because the plant is full of fire, and therefore hated by
daemons; and partly because it crackles in burning, to 'But, again, the moon is Hecate, the symbol of her
represent the god's prophetic art. varying phases and of her power dependent on the
phases. Wherefore her power appears in three forms,
'But inasmuch as the sun wards off the evils of the
having as symbol of the new moon the figure in the
earth, they called him Heracles (ίρακλίς), from his
white robe and golden sandals, and torches lighted:
clashing against the air (κλίσθαι πρίς τίν ίίρα)
the basket, which she bears when she has mounted
in passing from east to west. And they invented fables
high, is the symbol of the cultivation of the crops,
of his performing twelve labours, as the symbol of the
which she makes to grow up according to the increase
division of the signs of the zodiac in heaven; and they
of her light: and again the symbol of the full moon is
arrayed him with a club and a lion's skin, the one as
the goddess of the brazen sandals.
an indication of his uneven motion, and the other
representative of his strength in "Leo" the sign of the 'Or even from the branch of olive one might infer her
zodiac. fiery nature, and from the poppy her productiveness,
and the multitude of the souls who find an abode in
'Of the sun's healing power Asclepius is the symbol,
her as in a city, for the poppy is an emblem of a city.
and to him they have given the staff as a sign of the
She bears a bow, like Artemis, because of the
support and rest of the sick, and the serpent is wound
sharpness of the pangs of labour.
round it, as significant of his preservation of body and
soul: for the animal is most full of spirit, and shuffles 'And, again, the Fates are referred, to her powers,
off the weakness of the body. It seems also to have a Clotho to the generative, and Lachesis to the
great faculty for healing: for it found the remedy for nutritive, and Atropos to the inexorable will of the
giving clear sight, and is said in a legend to know a deity.
certain plant which restores life. 'Also, the power productive of corn-crops, which is
'But the fiery power of his revolving and circling Demeter, they associate with her, as producing power
motion, whereby he ripens the crops, is called in her. The moon is also a supporter of Koré. They set
Dionysus, not in the same sense as the power which Dionysus also beside her, both on account of their
produces the juicy fruits, but either from the sun's growth of horns, and because of the region of clouds
rotation (δινείν), or from his completing (διανίειν) lying beneath the lower world.
his orbit in the heaven. And whereas he revolves 'The power of Kronos they perceived to be sluggish
round the cosmical seasons (Spas), and is the maker and slow and cold, and therefore attributed to him the
of "times and tides," the sun is on this account called power of time (χρίνου): and they figure him
Horus. standing, and grey-headed, to indicate that time is
'Of his power over agriculture, whereon depend the growing old.
gifts of wealth (Plutus), the symbol is Pluto. He has, 'The Curetes, attending on Chronos, are symbols of
however, equally the power of destroying, on which the seasons, because time (Chronos) journeys on
account they make Sarapis share the temple of Pluto: through seasons.
and the purple tunic they make the symbol of the light
that has sunk beneath the earth, and the sceptre 'Of the Hours, some are the Olympian, belonging to
broken at the top that of his power below, and the the sun, which also open the gates in the air: and
posture of the hand the symbol of his departure into others are earthly, belonging to Demeter, and hold a
the unseen world. basket, one symbolic of the flowers of spring, and the
other of the wheat-ears of summer.

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'The power of Ares they perceived to be fiery, and 'The representation of the world itself they figured
represented it as causing war and bloodshed, and thus: the statue is like a man having feet joined
capable both of harm and benefit. together, and clothed from head to foot with a robe of
many colours, and has on the head a golden sphere,
'The star of Aphrodite they observed as tending to
the first to represent its immobility, the second the
fecundity, being the cause of desire and offspring,
many-coloured nature of the stars, and the third
and represented it as a woman because of generation,
because the world is spherical.
and as beautiful, because it is also the evening star----
'The sun they indicate sometimes by a man embarked
"Hesper, the fairest star that shines in heaven." 36
on a ship, the ship set on a crocodile. And the ship
'And Eros they set by her because of desire. She veils indicates the sun's motion in a liquid element: the
her breasts and other parts, because their power is the crocodile potable water in which the sun travels. The
source of generation and nourishment. She conies figure of the sun thus signified that his revolution
from the sea, a watery element, and warm, and in takes place through air that is liquid and sweet.
constant movement, and foaming because of its
'The power of the earth, both the celestial and
commotion, whereby they intimate the seminal
terrestrial earth, they called Isis, because of the
power.
equality (ίσίτητα), which is the source of justice:
'Hermes is the representative of reason and speech, but they call the moon the celestial earth, and the
which both accomplish and interpret all things. The vegetative earth, on which we live, they call the
phallic Hermes represents vigour, but also indicates terrestrial.
the generative law that pervades all things.
'Demeter has the same meaning among the Greeks as
'Further, reason is composite: in the sun it is called Isis among the Egyptians: and, again, Koré and
Hermes; in the moon Hecate; and that which is in the Dionysus among the Greeks the same as Isis and
All Hermopan, for the generative and creative reason Osiris among the Egyptians. Isis is that which
extends over all things. Hermanubis also is nourishes and raises up the fruits of the earth; and
composite, and as it were half Greek, being found Osiris among the Egyptians is that which supplies the
among the Egyptians also. Since speech is also fructifying power, which they propitiate with
connected with the power of love, Eros represents lamentations as it disappears into the earth in the
this power: wherefore Eros is represented as the son sowing, and as it is consumed by us for food.
of Hermes, but as an infant, because of his sudden
'Osiris is also taken for the river-power of the Nile:
impulses of desire.
when, however, they signify the terrestrial earth,
'They made Pan the symbol of the universe, and gave Osiris is taken as the fructifying power; but when the
him his horns as symbols of sun and moon, and the celestial, Osiris is the Nile, which they suppose to
fawn skin as emblem of the stars in heaven, or of the come down from heaven: this also they bewail, in
variety of the universe.' order to propitiate the power when failing and
Such are his interpretations of the Greek mythology: becoming exhausted. And the Isis who, in the
that of the Egyptians again he says has symbols such legends, is wedded to Osiris is the land of Egypt, and
as follow: 37 therefore she is made equal to him, and conceives,
and produces the fruits; and on this account Osiris has
'The Demiurge, whom the Egyptians call Cneph, is of been described by tradition as the husband of Isis, and
human form, but with a skin of dark blue, holding a her brother, and her son.'
girdle and a sceptre, and crowned with a royal wing
on his head, because reason is hard to discover, and CHAPTER XII
wrapt up in secret, and not conspicuous, and because [PORPHYRY] 'AT the city Elephantine there is an
it is life-giving, and because it is a king, and because image worshipped, which in other respects is
it has an intelligent motion: wherefore the fashioned in the likeness of a man and sitting; it is of
characteristic wing is put upon his head. a blue colour, and has a man's head, and a diadem
'This god, they say, puts forth from his mouth an egg, bearing the horns of a goat, above which is a quoit-
from which is born a god who is called by themselves shaped circle. He sits with a vessel of clay beside
Phtha, but by the Greeks Hephaestus; and the egg him, on which he is moulding the figure of a man.
they interpret as the world. To this god the sheep is And from having the face of a ram and the horns of a
consecrated, because the ancients used to drink milk. goat he indicates the conjunction of sun and moon in
the sign of the Ram, while the colour of blue

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indicates that the moon in that conjunction brings 'To the moon they dedicated a bull which they call
rain. Apis, which also is more black than others, and bears
symbols of sun and moon, because the light of the
'The second appearance of the moon is held sacred in
moon is from the sun. The blackness of his body is an
the city of Apollo: and its symbol is a man with a
emblem of the sun, and so is the beetle-like mark
hawk-like face, subduing with a hunting-spear
under his tongue; and the symbol of the moon is the
Typhon in the likeness of a hippopotamus. The image
semicircle, and the gibbous figure.'
is white in colour, the whiteness representing the
illumination of the moon, and the hawk-like face the Let it suffice that I have made these short extracts
fact that it derives light and breath from the sun. For from the writing of the before-named author, so that
the hawk they consecrate to the sun, and make it their we may not be ignorant of any secrets of the theology
symbol of light and breath, because of its swift which is at once both Grecian and Egyptian, and from
motion, and its soaring up on high, where the light is. which we confess ourselves to be apostates and
And the hippopotamus represents the Western sky, deserters, having rejected these doctrines with sound
because of its swallowing up into itself the stars judgement and reasoning.
which traverse it.
For I am not going to be frightened by the arrogant
'In this city Horus is worshipped as a god. But the voice which said,
city of Eileithyia worships the third appearance of the
'I speak to those who lawfully may hear:
moon: and her statue is fashioned into a flying
Depart, all ye profane, and close the doors." 38
vulture, whose plumage consists of precious stones.
And its likeness to a vulture signifies that the moon is Not we at all events are profane, but those who
what produces the winds: for they think that the declared that such foul and unseemly legends about
vulture conceives from the wind, and declares that beetles and brute beasts were the thoughts of a wise
they are all hen birds. theology---- they who, according to the admirable
Apostle, 'professing themselves to be wise, became
'In the mysteries at Eleusis the hierophant is dressed
fools,' 39 seeing that they 'changed the glory of the
up to represent the demiurge, and the torch-bearer the
incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of
sun, the priest at the altar the moon, and the sacred
corruptible man, and of birds, and fourfooted beasts,
herald Hermes.
and creeping things.'
'Moreover a man is admitted by the Egyptians among
But since they used to refer all the secret and more
their objects of worship. For there is a village in
mysterious doctrine on these subjects in a
Egypt called Anabis, in which a man is worshipped,
metaphorical sense to incorporeal powers, so as to
and sacrifice offered to him, and the victims burned
appear no longer to apply their deification to the
upon his altars: and after a little while he would eat
visible parts of the world, but to certain invisible and
the things that had been prepared for him as for a
incorporeal powers, let us examine whether we ought
man.
not even so to admire. the divine power as one, and
'They did not, however, believe the animals to be not to regard it as many.
gods, but regarded them as likenesses and symbols of
For it does not follow, because many shapes and parts
gods; and this is shown by the fact that in many
and limbs have been created in one body, that we
places oxen dedicated to the gods are sacrificed at
ought to believe them to have as many souls, nor to
their monthly festivals and in their religious services.
suppose that there are as many makers and creators of
For they consecrated oxen to the sun and moon.
the body; but that as one soul moves the whole body,
CHAPTER XIII so one creative power framed the whole living being.
[PORPHYRY] 'THE ox called Mnevis which is Thus then in the case of the whole world also, since it
dedicated to the sun in Heliopolis, is the largest of is one, and consists of one kind of corporeal matter,
oxen, very black, chiefly because much sunshine but is divided into many parts, and reveals one natural
blackens men's bodies. And its tail and all its body sympathy of the universe, and a composition and
are covered with hair that bristles backwards unlike mixture of its elements, with changes and
other cattle, just as the sun makes its course in the transformations of one into another, while it exhibits
opposite direction to the heaven. Its testicles are very the entire whole as one order and one harmony, we
large, since desire is produced by heat, and the sun is ought not to suppose many creative powers, but to
said to fertilize nature. deify only one, namely that which is in very truth 'the
power of God, and the wisdom of God.'40

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Eusebius of Caesarea Praeparatio Evangelica

But our wise philosopher does not observe that he is And why do they think we ought to worship as gods
transforming the Egyptian mythologies back into the seminal power, and the production of tree-fruits,
immaterial powers; for you have heard in what has or of the blossoms that appear in spring, and perish
gone before, how he confessed that Chaeremon and before they have perfected their fruit, or the symbols
several others 'believed in nothing else as prior to the of the cutting of the ripe crops, surnaming them
visible worlds, and placed the Egyptians first,' Dionysus and Attis and Adonis, instead of honouring
because they interpreted all things of physical laws above all these the human race for whose use and
and nothing of incorporeal and living beings.' sustenance these things were provided by the Divine
Creator of the universe?
If therefore, according to their own confession, it was
characteristic of the Egyptians to refer nothing 'to But passing from these points, you will by the like
incorporeal and living beings,' but to transfer all their method confute all the rest of their grand physical
mythological stories concerning the gods to the theory, and with good reason rebuke the
physical parts of the world, why then do they begin shamelessness of those, say, who declared that the
anew with their subtleties, and ascribe to the sun was Apollo himself, and again Heracles, and at
Egyptians doctrines which in no way belong to them, another time Dionysus, and again in like manner
by asserting that they make their theology refer back Asclepius.
to incorporeal powers? Such is the general charge to
For how could the same person be both father and
be brought.
son, Asclepius and Apollo at once? And how could
And in regard also to the particulars, I think that no he be changed again into Heracles, since Heracles has
long refutation is needed to disprove their forced been acknowledged by them to be the son of a mortal
rendering. woman Alcmena? And how could the sun go mad
and slay his own sons, seeing that this also has been
For to pass over the nonsense of the Egyptians and all
ascribed to Heracles?
their prating foolery, and to come on to the physical
theories of the wise Greeks, what man of sound mind But in the performance of his twelve labours Heracles
would not at once condemn those who attempt to give is said to be the symbol of the distribution in the
such perverse interpretations? heaven of the zodiacal circle in which they say the
sun revolves. Who then is now to be the Eurystheus,
For grant that Zeus no longer means the fiery and
that enjoins the performance of the labours on the
ethereal substance, as however was supposed by the
sun, as he did upon Heracles? And how can the fifty
ancients according to Plutarch, but that he is the
daughters of Thestius be referred to the sun, and the
supreme 'mind' itself, 'the creator of the universe,'
multitude of other female captives with whom the
who giveth to all things life----how then shall his
story says that Heracles consorted, and of whom were
father be Kronos, whom they assert to be time, and
born to him mortal sons who continued the
his mother Rhea, whom our interpreter declared to be
succession of their generations for a very long time?
the power of rocks and mountains? For I cannot
And who could the Centaur be, with whose blood
understand how, after calling Hera the air and the
Deianeira smeared the tunic, and so would have
ether, he says that she is at the same time sister and
involved the sun, as in fact she did Heracles, in the
wife of the mind that made the world and gave life to
misery that has been described?
all things.
But now suppose they make the sun no longer
But again let Leto be called a kind of oblivion (ληθί)
Heracles, but Dionysus: and any one may with good
because of the insensibility, as they say, in sleep, and
reason say, 'What have these things to do with
because oblivion accompanies the souls that are born
Dionysus?' For who was his mother, whether called
into this sublunary world. How then could oblivion
Semele or Persephone? And how could Dionysus be
become the mother of sun and moon, Apollo and
both the sun and the power that sprouts forth in the
Artemis the children of Leto having been transformed
moist fruits and nuts? And what can the multitude of
into sun and moon?
women who went with him on his expedition mean?
And why are we to worship Rhea or Demeter as a And who is the Ariadne of the sun, as there was, we
goddess, if the one was said to be symbolic of rocky know, the Ariadne of Dionysus. And why, when
and mountainous land, and the other of the plain? As Dionysus is transformed into the sun, should he be
they allegorize Koré into satiety (κίρος), for what the provider rather of wine, and not of corn and
reason do they think they ought to honour her with vegetables and all the fruits of the earth? And again,
that venerable title? if they make the sun Asclepius, how is he stricken
with the thunderbolt of Zeus on account of his sordid

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love of gain, according to Pindar the lyric poet of made of lifeless matter, nor to suppose that by
Boeotia, who speaks as follows: vapours of gore and filth steaming from the earth, and
by the blood of slain animals they are doing things
'Him too by splendid bribe the gold
pleasing to God.
Seen glittering on his palm seduc'd.
........... Surely it became these men of wisdom and of lofty
Then swiftly from Kronion's hand speech, as being set free from all these bonds of error,
The flashing lightning, fraught with death, to impart of their physical speculations ungrudgingly
With fiery bolt transfixing both, to all men, and to proclaim as it were in naked truth
Quench'd in each form the living breath.' to all, that they should adore not the things that are
seen, but only the unseen Creator of things visible,
Who again were the Asclepiadae, children of the sun,
and worship His invisible and incorporeal powers in
who after being themselves preserved to a long life,
ways invisible and incorporeal, not by kindling fire
founded a race of mortals like all other men?
nor yet by offerings of ranis and bulls, nay, nor yet by
However, while they try to escape, as it were by some imagining that they honour the Deity by garlands and
sudden transformation, from the unseemly and statues and the building of temples, but by
fabulous narratives concerning the gods, their system worshipping Him with purified thoughts and right
will run back again to sun, and moon, and the other and true doctrines, in dispassionate calmness of soul,
parts of the world. and in growing as far as possible like unto Him.
If at least they made Hephaestus fire and the force of But no one ever yet, barbarian or Greek, began to
heat, Poseidon the watery element, Hera the air, and show all men this truth except only our Saviour; who,
the mountainous and rocky earth Rhea, the plain and having proclaimed to all nations an escape from their
fruitful earth Demeter, Koré the seminal power, and ancient error, procured abundantly for them all a way
Dionysus the power which produces hard fruits, the of return and of devotion to the one true and only
sun Apollo, together with those who have been God of the universe. Yet the men perversely wise
enumerated above, and the moon at one time Artemis, who boasted of the highest philosophy of life,
at another Athena, and again Hecate, and Eileithyia--- whereby as the inspired Apostle says,41 though they
-are they not again convicted of deifying 'the creature knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither
rather than the Creator.' and the handiwork of the gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and
world but not the worker, with great risk and danger, their senseless heart was darkened. They professed
and with mischief that must fall on their own head? indeed to be wise, but became fools, . . . and
But if they shall assert that they deify not the visible worshipped and served the creature rather than the
bodies of sun and moon and stars, nor yet the sensible Creator, who is blessed for ever.42
parts of the world, but the powers, invisible in them, CHAPTER XIV
of the very God who is over all----for they say that
So after their long and manifold philosophical
God being One fills all things with various powers,
speculation, and after their solemn systems of
and pervades all, and rules over all, but as existing in
meteorology and physiology, they fell down from
all and pervading all in an incorporeal and invisible
their high place, as it were from the loftiest mountain-
manner. and that they rightly worship Him through
top, and were dragged down with the common herd,
the things which we have mentioned----why in the
and swept away with the polytheistic delusion of the
world therefore do they not reject the foul and
ancients, pretending that they glorified the like deities
unseemly fables concerning the gods as being
with the multitude by offering sacrifice and falling
unlawful and impious, and put out of sight the very
down before images, and increasing, and still further
books concerning them, as containing blasphemous
strengthening, the vulgar opinion of the legendary
and licentious teaching, and celebrate the One and
stories concerning the gods.
Only and Invisible God openly and purely and
without any foul envelopment? Must it not then be evident to all men that they are
only talking solemn nonsense in their physical
For this was what those who had known the truth
theories, and, as far as words go, putting a fair face on
ought to do, and not to degrade and debase the
foul things by their perversion of the truth, but in
venerable name of God into foul and lustful fables of
actual deeds establishing the fabulous delusion, and
things unspeakable; nor yet to shut themselves up in
the vulgar superstition? And so far there is no
cells and dark recesses and buildings made by man,
wonder, since they even record that their gods
as if they would find God inside; nor to think that
they are worshipping the Divine powers in statues

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themselves assent to the fabulous stories concerning How also could Hermes be thought of as the reason
them. which both makes and interprets all things, when he
confesses that he had for his mother Maia the
Hear at least how Apollo himself teaches men a
daughter of Atlas, thus sanctioning the fable that is
hymn, which he put forth concerning himself,
told concerning him, and not any physical
acknowledging that he was born of Leto in the island
explanation?
of Delos, and Asclepius again in Tricca, as also
Hermes acknowledging that he was the child of Maia: So again, how could Asclepius be changed into the
for these things also are written by Porphyry in a sun, when he lays claim to Tricca as his native place,
book which he entitled Of the Philosophy derived and confesses that he was born of a mortal mother?
from Oracles, wherein he made mention of the Or how, if he were himself the sun, could be
oracles which run as follows:43 represented again as a child of the sun? Since in their
physical theory they made his father Phoebus to be no
'Thou, joy of mortals, forth didst spring
other than the sun.
From thy pure mother's sacred pangs.'
And is it not the most ridiculous thing of all, to say
To this he subjoins----
that he was born of the sun and a mortal woman? For
'But when the pangs of holy birth how is it reasonable that his father, the sun, whom
Through all her frame fair Leto seized, they declare to be Apollo, should himself also have
And in her womb twin children stirr'd, been born in the island Delos of a mortal mother
Still stood the earth, the air stood still, again, namely Leto.
The isle grew fix'd, the wave was hush'd;
Here observe, I pray you, how many gods born of
Forth into life Lycoreus sprang,
women were deified by the Greeks, to be brought
God of the bow, the prophet-king
forward if ever they attempt to mock at our Saviour's
On the divining tripod thron'd.'
birth: observe also that the remarks quoted are not the
Asclepius again thus speaks of himself: words of poets, but of the gods themselves.
'From sacred Tricca, lo! I come, the god CHAPTER XV
Of mortal mother erst to Phoebus born,
WHEN poets therefore, as they say, invent legends
Of wisdom and the healing art a king,
concerning the gods, while philosophers give
Asclepius nam'd. But say, what would'st thou ask?'
physical explanations, we ought, I suppose, rightly to
And Hermes says: despise the former, and admire the latter as
'Lo! whom thou callest, Zeus' and Maia's son, philosophers, and to accept the persuasive arguments
Hermes, descending from the starry throne, of this better class rather than the triflings of the
Hither I come.' poets. But when on the other hand gods and
philosophers enter into competition, and the former,
They also subjoin a description of the appearance of as likely to know best, state exactly the facts
their own form, as Pan in the oracles gives the concerning themselves in their oracles, while the
following description concerning himself:44 latter twist their guesses about things which they do
'To Pan, a god of kindred race, not know into discordant and undemonstrable
A mortal born my vows I pay; subtleties, which does reason persuade us to believe?
Whose horned brows and cloven feet Or rather is this not even worth asking?
And goat-like legs his lust betray.' If therefore the gods are to speak true in certifying the
These are the things which the author before named human passions attributed to them, they who set these
has set forth among the secrets Of the Philosophy aside must be false; but if the physical explanations
drawn from the Oracles, Pan therefore was no longer of the philosophers are true, the testimonies of the
the symbol of the universe, but must be some such gods must be false.
daemon as is described, who also gave forth the But even Apollo himself, it may be said, somewhere
oracle: for of course it was not the universe, and the in an oracle, when asked about himself who he was,
whole world, that gave the oracle which we have replied:
before us. The men therefore who fashioned the
likeness of this daemon, and not that of the universe, 'Osiris, Horus, Sun, Apollo, Zeus-born king,
imitated the figure before described. Ruler of times and seasons, winds and showers.
Guiding the reins of dawn and starry night,
King of the shining orbs, eternal Fire.'

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So then the same witnesses agree both with the poets' another time confirming the statements of the
legends and with the philosophers' guesses, allying philosophers' jugglery in order to instigate them also
themselves with both sides in the battle. For if they and puff them up: so that in every way it is proved
ascribe to themselves mortal mothers, and that they speak no truth at all.
acknowledge their native places upon earth, how can
After having said so much it is now time for us to
they be such as the physicists describe them?
pass on, and advance to the third kind of Greek
Grant that Apollo is the sun----for their argument will theology, which they say is political and legal. For
again be caught running backwards and forwards and this has been thought most suitable to astonish the
round to the same place----how then could Delos, the multitude, both because of the celebrated oracles, and
island which is now still seen at sea, be the native the healings and cures of bodily sufferings, and the
place of the sun, and Leto his mother? For this is punishments inflicted upon some. And while they
what his own oracles just now certified as being true. assert that they have had experience of these things,
And how could the sun become the father of they have thoroughly persuaded themselves that they
Asclepius, a mortal man by nature, having begotten are doing rightly in their own devotion to the gods,
him of a mortal woman? But let us put this subject and that we are guilty of the greatest impiety in not
aside. honouring the powers that are so manifest and so
beneficent with the services that are due to them. To
CHAPTER XVI
meet then these objections also, let us make another
THE falsehood of the oracle is to be refuted in new beginning of our argument.
another way. For surely the sun did not come down to
them from heaven, and then, after fully inspiring the
recipient, utter the Phoebean oracle; since it is neither 1. 83 c 1 Plutarch, De Daedalis Plataeensibus, a
possible nor right that so great a luminary should be fragment preserved by Eusebius
subjected to man's compulsion: nay, not even if they 2. 83 d 9 Plato, Laws, vi. 775 B
should speak of the divine and intelligent power in 3. 85 b 7 Hom. Il. xvi. 187
the sun, because a human soul could never be capable 4. 86 d 10 Hesiod, Opp. 233
of receiving even this. 5. 87 c 5 Plato, Cratylus, 397 C
6. 88 b 1 Diodorus Siculus, i. 11
In the case of the moon also there would be the same
7. 88 d 6 ibid. 12
argument. For if they mean to assert that she is
8. 88 d 14 Hom. Il. 544
Hecate, how then can it be right that she should be
9. 89 b 1 Orph. Fr. 165
dragged down by constraint of men, and prophesy
10. 89 b 5 Hom. Il. xiv. 201
through the recipient, and be taken to help in base and
11. 90 a 4 Hom. Od. xvii. 485 (Pope)
amatory services, herself being ruler of the evil
12. 90 b 1 Diod. Sic. i. 13
daemons----how right, I say, that Hecate should do
13. 90 c 8 Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, 363 D 98
these things? This the writer himself acknowledges,
14. 91 b 1 Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, 359 E
as we shall fully prove in due time.
15. 92 a 4 Porphyry, Epistle to Anebo, a fragment
How again could Pluto and Sarapis be changed by preserved by Eusebius: see Iamblichus, De Mysteriis,
physical theory into the sun, when the same author Parthey
declares that Sarapis is the same with Pluto, and is the 16. 93 c 13 Porphyry, On Abstinence from Animal
ruler of the evil daemons? Moreover, in recording Food, iv. 9
oracles of Sarapis how could he say they were those 17. 97 d 4 Porphyry, Concerning Images, Orphic
of the sun? Fragm. vi. I; cf. p. 664 d
But in fact from all these considerations it only 18. 99 b 1 Plutarch, De Daedalis Plataeensibus, a
remains to confess that the physical explanations fragment preserved by Eusebius only
which have been described have no truth, but are 19. 99 b 8 Callimachus, Fragment 105, preserved by
sophisms and subtleties of sophistic men. Eusebius only
20. 99 d 5 Plato, Laws, xii. 955 E
CHAPTER XVII 21. 100 a 1 Porphyry, Concerning Images, Stobaeus,
THE ministrants indeed of the oracles we must in Ed. i. 2, 23
plain truth declare to be evil daemons, playing both 22. 100 b 3 Orphic Fragm. 123 (Abel), vi (Hermann),
parts to deceive mankind, and at one time agreeing Aristotle, De Mundo, c. vii.
with the more fabulous suppositions concerning 23. 103 c 2 Plato, Cratylus, 397 C, quoted on p. 87 c
themselves, to deceive the common people, and at 6

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24. 104 c 8 Jer. xxiii. 24 104 d 5 Isa. Ixvi. 1 (Sept.) IX. How the worship of the gods by sacrifice is
25. 104 c 9 Deut. iv. 39 prescribed by Apollo
26. 104 c 10 Acts xvii. 28
X. That they who delight in animal sacrifices cannot
27. 105 d 6 Ps. viii. 4 (Sept.)
be gods
28. 105 d 8 Ps. ci. 26 (Sept.)
29. 105 d 10 Isa. xl. 26 XI. That none of the fruits of the earth may be offered
30. 106 a 1 cf. 101 c 5 to the supreme God either as incense or sacrifice
31. 106 c 1 Gen. i. 26 XII. Not even to the divine powers is it right to offer
32. 108 b 1 Porphyry, Concerning Images any of the fruits of the earth either as incense or
33. 108 c 5 Orphic Fragm. 123,19; see p. 100 d 6 sacrifice
34. d 3 Porphyry, l. c.
35. 111 d 10 Porphyry, Concerning Images XIII. Further concerning the impropriety of offering
36. 114 c 1 Hom. Il. xxii. 318 the fruits of the earth to the supreme God
37. 115 a 7 Porphyry, Concerning Images XIV. To offer animals to the gods is unlawful and
38. 118 a 9 Orphic Fragm. vi. 1 injurious and unjust and unholy, and subject to
39. 118 b 1 Rom. i. 22 execration
40. 118 d 8 1 Cor. i. 24 XV. That their offerings are made to daemons and not
41. 122 d 7 Rom. i. 21, 22 to gods
42. 122 d 9 verse 25
43. 123 d 1 Porphyry, De Philos. ex Oraculis, XVI. Porphyry on human sacrifice in old time
fragments preserved by Eusebius XVII. That after the teaching of the Gospel the old
44. 124 b 2 This fragment is quoted again p. 201 c custom of human sacrifice was abolished
136 The heathen theology was all concerned with evil
daemons
XVIII. It is wrong to sacrifice to evil daemons
BOOK IV XIX. How we ought to be devoted to the supreme
CONTENTS God
XX. How Apollo enjoins sacrifice to the evil daemon
I. Preface concerning the oracles in various cities, and
the most celebrated responses by the extraordinary XXI. None other than our Lord and Saviour ever
manifestations of daemons, and our reason for delivered the whole human race from the deceit of
disregarding them daemons
II. That it is easy for any who will to prove the XXII. The manner of daemoniacal activity
promise of the oracles to be the deceit and knavery of XXIII. Of the evil daemons and the character of their
human impostors rulers
III. Extract from Diogenianus, that their soothsaying CHAPTER I
is inconsistent and full of falsehood, and their
prediction useless and mischievous In this fourth book of the Preparation for the Gospel,
due order bids me to refute the third form of
IV. That from these great evils we were delivered by
polytheistic error, from which we were delivered by
the evangelic teaching of our Saviour
the power and beneficence of our Redeemer and
V. The division of Greek theology Saviour.
VI. That we confirm the testimonies used in our For since they divide their whole system of theology
arguments not by our own assertions, but by our under three general heads, the mythical treated by the
quotations from the Greeks poets in tragedy, and the physical which has been
Concerning the secrets of the oracles, from quotations invented by the philosophers, and that which is
of the Greeks enforced by the laws and observed in each city and
country; and since two of these parts have been
VII. Extract from Porphyry on the oracles. His oath
already explained by us in the preceding books,
of the truth of his statements.
namely the historical, which they call mythical, and
VIII. That his intended statements must not be that which has transcended the mythical, and which
published to all they call physical, or speculative, or by any other

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